ENGLAND, CHURCH OF, A brief sketch of the origin and early history, as well as an outline of the doctrines and form of government of this church, will be found under the head ANGLO-CATHOLIC CHURCH. See also the articles AUGUSTINE and DurrsTAN. Up to the time of the reformation, ecclesiastical affairs would be more properly described as the history of the church in England ; from that period the church of England dates her existence. She, however, retains so much of antiquity, and her institutions, laws, and formularies are so interwoven with the history of the past, that it would he impossible to have any correct or connected view of them, and of her connection with the state, her characteristic feature, without at least glancing rapidly over the leading events between the conquest and the reign of Henry VIII. During the three centuries from the Norman conquest (1066) to the preaching of Wickliffe (1356), her history can be regarded only as a continual struggle between the ecclesiastical and civil power, and there would be little else to describe than the methods by which the miter triumphed over the crown, and the crown invaded the rights and property of the church. In the time of William I., nearly half the country was in the hands of spiritual persons. He ejected the English clergy, and supplanted them with Normans; and although he was possessed of full power over the church, yet in his reign were sown the seeds of future papal encroachments. Papal legates were then first introduced into England, and the ecclesiastical courts separated from the civil. From this time, the increased influence of Rome may be traced to the defective titles, the usurpations, and the violent conduct of the kings. Thus, the defective title of Henry I. made him seek popularity by recall ing the primate Anselm, who had incurred the displeasure of his brother and had fled the country. Anselm was devoted to the pope, who had espoused his quarrel, and refused to do homage to the king for the temporalities of his see, till at length Henry found himself obliged to surrender the right of investiture. Thus, too, Stephen's usurpation opened the way for further encroachments; and Henry II., who found the power of Rome greatly augmented, helped to extend it further, by accepting a grant of Ireland from the pope. Then followed the opposition of Thomas-ft-Becket,. which arose out of the question of the punishment of ecclesiastics by the civil power. For the moment, it seemed that the quarrel was healed by the constitutions agreed on at Claren don (q.v.), but it broke out more violently than ever. The pope discharged Becket from his oath, and condemned the constitutions. Becket had fled from the kingdom; and his subsequent return, murder, and canonization, all tended to strengthen the authority of the church. It was not, however, till the reign of John, when England
was laid under an interdict, and the king resigned his crown to the pope, that the papal encroachments rose to their height; and the weak reign of Henry III., which followed, did nothing to abate them. Edward I. gave a check to the power of the clergy, sub jected them to taxation, and passed the statute of Mortmain (1279), which prohibited the transfer of land without the king's consent. There is little to be said as to inno vations in doctrine during these three centuries;, but it may be noted, that about the middle of this period, viz., 1213, the council of St. John Lateran declared transubstan tiation, or the bodily presence of Christ in the consecrated elements, to be a tenet of the church.
It was in 1356 that a new period commenced. Wickliffe then published his first work, entitled The Last Age of the Church, directed against the covetousness of the church of Rome. His doctrines correspond in many points with those now taught by the church of England, but he differed from her in regard to the necessity of episcopacy, which he rejected; he also believed in purgatory, and enjoined prayers for the dead. His chief objects of attack were the papal indulgences, and the doctrine of transubstan tiation. It has been observed concerning the condemnation at Oxford of Wickliffe's opinions with respect to the latter, that " this was the first plenary determination of the church of England in the case, so that this doctrine, which brought so many to the stake, had but with us 140 years' prescription before the times of Martin Luther." In a limited sense, he upheld the efficacy of the seven sacraments. Wickliffe had a large body of followers. They were called Lollards, probably from a German word, lullen, to sing with a low voice. The storm of persecution which he escaped death, fell upon them. Henry IV. thought it necessary to fortify his usurped position by assisting the bishops against the Lollards; and from this time to the reformation, there was an uninterrupted succession of confessors and martyrs. Sir John Oldcastle, lord Cobham, was the most illustrious of these sufferers. Fox gives a detailed account of nearly 20 individuals burned for heresy between the death of lord Cobham and 1509, when Henry VIII. ascended the throne. To some extent, the blood of these martyrs was the seed of the Reformed church; but we must not overlook the " hidden seed " which was growing secretly, from the time that Wickliffe gave to his countrymen a translation of the Scrip tures in their own tongue. The progress of learning, and especially the study of Greek, led to a better of the sacred books, whilst the invention of printing (1442) caused a wider circulation of them.